State & Society / Etat et société (2025)

In recent years, the housing crisis and the climate emergency have underscored the inability of private market actors to address these challenges. As a result, there have been growing calls for states to take a more active role in financing the ecological transition and essential infrastructure, by assuming part of the costs and risks involved in the name of the public interest. These debates often treat “public” and “private” as distinct categories whose relative macroeconomic importance must be rebalanced. But what are the foundations of this distinction? Is it accurate to view states as passive spectators in today’s financial and monetary systems? How has their role in these systems evolved over time, and what has been the distributive impact of their interventions?

This course offers a historical perspective on the relationship between state and society by examining the evolving role of governments in the creation, regulation, and management of modern money and finance. It is divided into three parts:

• Part I introduces key concepts such as "state," "money," and "finance," and reviews current heterodox approaches to these topics
• Part II explores the historical division of labor between public and private actors in money and capital markets, as well as in banking and payment systems, from the end of the medieval period to World War I. Special attention is given to the role of public debt markets in consolidating modern states, and to how central banks and banking regulations ensure convertibility between public and private money within specific institutional contexts
• Part III examines how states and central banks have actively constructed monetary and capital markets, formulated credit and investment policies, and managed financial crises in the 20^th and 21^st centuries.

Learning will primarily take place through the reading of scholarly articles, student presentations, and group discussions. Through the analysis of primary sources, tutorial sessions will offer opportunities to explore the role of public and private actors in building financial institutions and monetary markets. By the end of the course, students will have gained a deep understanding of how states have shaped—and been shaped by—money and finance over time, as well as the challenges and opportunities governments face in managing the socio-economic upheavals brought about by climate change.